quivering of his under lip, which from time to time he unconsciously bit till the marks of his teeth remained in blood upon it, alone testifying the mental suffering he experienced. Ruin and disgrace were before him. Nor was this all. The Duc d'Austerlitz, a young foreigner who, bitten with Anglo-mania, had purchased a racing stud, and was the owner of Tartuffe, happened to be the individual before alluded to as Lord Bellefield's successful rival in the venial affections of the fascinating danseuse. He hated him, accordingly, with an intensity which would have secured him the approbation of the good-haterloving Dr. Johnson. If anything, therefore, were wanting to render the intelligence he had just received doubly irritating to him, this fact supplied the deficiency. His lordship, however, possessed one element of greatness, his spirit invariably rose with difficulties, and the greater the emergency the more cool and collected did he become. Having remained silent for some minutes, he observed, quietly, "I suppose, Turnbull, you, being a shrewd clever fellow in your way, scarcely came here merely to tell me this. You are perfectly aware that, relying upon your information and judgment, I have made a heavy book on this race, and can imagine that, however long my purse may be, I shall find it more agreeable to win than to lose. You have, therefore, I am sure, some expedient to propose. In fact, I read in your face that it is so."

The man smiled.

"Your lordship I always knew to have a sharp eye for a good horse, or a pretty gal," he said, "but you must be wide awake if you can read a man's thoughts in his face:-it ain't such an easy matter to say what is best to do; if your lordship's made rather too heavy a book on the race, I should recommend a little careful hedging to-morrow morning."

Lord Bellefield shook his head,-"Too late to make anything of it," he replied, "that is, of course, I might save myself from any very heavy loss, but I must have money—a—in fact, I stood so fair to win largely by this race, that hedging will be quite a dernier ressort. But you have some better scheme than that to propose." "If your lordship is at a loss how to act it is not likely that any plan of mine will do the trick;" was the reply.

Whether or not Turnbull wished to provoke his employer, certain it is his speech produced that effect, for with an oath Lord Bellefield exclaimed :

"What is it you are aiming at? if it be money you are standing out for, you have only to prevent Tartuffe from starting, and name your own price."

"Why you see it might be as well to let him start; men have been transported for interfering with a race 'orse to purwent his starting, but he need not win the Derby, for all that," was the enigmatical reply.

Lord Bellefield's lip curled with a sardonic smile; his knowledge of human nature had not then deceived him, Turnbull had some scheme in petto, and was only waiting to secure the best market for it.

"I suppose 1,000l. will satisfy you," he said; and

as the trainer bowed his gratitude, continued, “You are certain your plan cannot fail? what is it you propose ?"

Why, you see, my lord, 'orses is like 'uman creeturs in many respecs," replied Turnbull, "there's some things as agrees with their stummicks, and some as disagrees with 'em; the things that agrees with the hanimals makes 'em run faster, the things that disagrees makes them run slower, or if you give it 'em too strong they comes to a stand still all together. Now, if so be as Tartuffe was to have a taste of a certain drug as I knows on, that ain't very different from hopium, give to him afore he goes to sleep tonight, he'll come to the starting post all right, and run very respectible, but if he beats our 'orse I'll engage to eat him saddle and all. I can't speak fairer than that, I expect."

"And who have you fixed upon to execute this piece of delectable rascality?" inquired Lord Bellefield, unable to repress a sneer at the meanness of the villainy by which, however, he was only too glad to profit.

"It was not a very easy matter to pitch upon the right man," rejoined the trainer; "but luckily I happened to remember a party that seemed as if he'd been born a purpose for the job, and who has been so thoroughly cleaned out lately that he was not likely to be particular about trifles. I saw him before I left home, showed him which way his interest lay, put him up to my ideas on the subject, and I hope when I sees your lordship to-morrow morning I shall have some good news to tell you.”

"I'll be with you early, before people are about," returned Lord Bellefield; "it is important that I should know the result of this scheme as soon as possible; the greatest caution must be observed lest the matter should transpire, and if anything comes out you of course must take it upon yourself. The man should go abroad for a time. And now I must try and get a couple of hours' sleep, or my head will not be fit for to-morrow's work. I breakfast at Epsom with a set of men; but I'll be with you first. You've acted with your usual zeal and cleverness, Turnbull, and I'll take care that you shall have no reason to repent your honesty to your employer; only let us win to-morrow, and your fortune is made. Good night." As he spoke he rang the bell, and with many servile acknowledgments of his master's promised liberality, the trainer departed.

While this interview was taking place, a far dif ferent scene had been enacting in the premises occupied by the racing stud of the Duc d'Austerlitz. As the clock over the stables chimed the hour after midnight, a light ladder was placed against the wall of one of the outer buildings, and a slightly-framed agile man ran up it, and drawing it cautiously after him, laid it in a place of security, where it would remain unnoticed till his return; he then crept with noiseless cat-like steps over roofs, and along parapets, finding among rain-gutters and coping-stones a dangerous and uncertain footing, until he reached a

building, nearly in the centre of the yard; here he paused, and drawing from his pocket a short iron instrument, shaped like a chisel at one end, he cautiously chipped away the mortar round one of the tiles which protected an angle of the roof, and, by removing the tile, exposed the ends of a row of slating. Quietly raising one of the slates, he, by means of the instrument above alluded to, which is known to the initiated by the euphonious title of a "jemmy," snapped the nails which retained it in its place, and removed it. Having acted in a similar manner by two others, he produced a small cabinet-maker's saw, and cutting through the battens, opened a space sufficiently wide to admit the passage of a man's body. Replacing his tools, he crept through the aperture thus effected, and letting himself down by his hands into the loft beneath, dropped noiselessly on to some trusses of hay, placed there for future consumption. Part of his task was now accomplished, for he was in the loft over the horse-box in which Tartuffe was reposing his graceful limbs before the coming struggle; but the most difficult and hazardous portion of his enterprise remained yet to be accomplished. Crawling on his hands and knees, he reached one of the openings by which the hay was let down into the racks beneath, and cautiously peeping over, gazed into the interior of the stable itself, and noted the precautions taken to | secure the safety of the race-horse, and the difficulties which lay before him. The box in which the animal was placed was secured by a strong padlock, the key of which rested at that moment under the pillow of Slangsby, the Duc d'Austerlitz's trainer, while in the next box, half-lying, half-sitting on a truss of straw, dozed "Yorkshire Joe," a broad-shouldered bow-legged lad some eighteen years of age, who had been a kind of equestrian valet to Tartuffe, during the whole "educational course" of that promising quadruped. These particulars the intelligent eye of the tenant of the hayloft took in at a glance, while his quick wit decided as rapidly the exact degree in which they were calculated to tell for or against the object he sought to accomplish. The padlock was in his favour; for as he did not intend to enter the horse-box by the door, it would serve to keep Joe out without interfering with his design; but the presence of the stable-boy presented an insuperable obstacle to his further proceedings. This difficulty had, however, been foreseen and provided against. Stealing on tiptoe across the loft, he selected a long, stout straw, and thrusting it through the key-hole of the door by which the fodder was taken in, he suffered it to drop on the outside. Scarcely had he done so, when a low cough announced the presence of some confederate, and, satisfied that everything was in a right train, he noiselessly returned to his post of observation. In another moment his quick ear caught the sound of a modest tap at the stable-door. Honest Joe's senses not being equally on the alert, the knock had to be repeated more than once ere he became aware of it. As soon as he grew convinced that the sound was not the creation of his sleeping fancy, he rubbed his eyes,

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'Well, if I'd thought you'd have been so unkind, I would not have stayed out of my warm bed, trapesing through Hepsom streets at this time o'night, which ain't fit for a respecktible young woman to be out in, and coming all this way to put you up to something as may lose you your place, and worse, if you ain't told of it. I didn't expect sich unkindness

and from you, too; that I didn't;" and here a sound akin to a sob, apparently indicating that the speaker was weeping, found its way to Joe's ears, and going thence straight to his honest unsuspicious heart, overcame his prudence and conquered his resolution. Rising from his seat, he approached the door and listened: the sobs still continued.

Mary, lass, what ails thee?" he said, "I didn't mean to anger thee, wench! but thee knoas I dare na leave t'horse; besoids t' stable-dour be locked, and maister's got t' key."

"And can't you come to the window in the further stable, where we've talked many a time before?" suggested the syren. "It's something about the horse I want to tell you, a dodge they're going to try,| to prevent his winning to-morrow. You don't think I'd have come out at this time o'night for nothing, do you, stupey ?" This intelligence chased away Joe's last lingering scruple, and muttering,

"About t' horse!—why did na thee say so afore?" he lit a hand-lantern at the lamp which hung from the ceiling, and, assuring himself by a glance that his charge was in safety, quitted the stable by a sidedoor.

In the meantime, the occupant of the loft had not been idle. As soon as Joe became engrossed by the foregoing conversation, the sound of a fine saw at work might have been perceived by a more delicate organization than that of the sturdy groom; and at the moment in which he left the stable, two of the bars of the rack were silently removed, and through the opening thus effected, a man cautiously lowered himself, and, resting his feet for an instant on the manger, dropped lightly into the box occupied by Tartuffe. This feat was accomplished so quietly, that the horse which happened not to be lying down, but was standing, trying, through its muzzle, to nibble the straw of its bed, was scarcely startled, merely raising its head, and staring at its unexpected visitant. This individual now produced from his mysterious pocket a handful of oats, and holding them

out, allowed Tartuffe to smell and nibble at them; while the animal was thus engaged, he removed the muzzle, worn for the purpose of preventing it from eating its litter, or otherwise gaining access to any food of which the trainer might disapprove. His next proceeding was to draw out that ingenious instrument of torture yclept a twitch, which, for the benefit of those of our lady readers who do not happen to be gifted with "a stable mind," or to have encouraged sporting tendencies, we may describe as a short, thick stick, or handle, about two feet long, terminated by a loop of stout whipcord, or leather, into which the upper-lip, or, occasionally, the ear of the horse is inserted; then, by twisting the stick, the loop can be tightened so as to produce any amount of agony the inflicter may desire: the philosophy of the matter being, that the animal, finding his struggles exactly double his pain, soon has sense enough to choose the lesser of two evils, and therefore stands still while nasty things are being forced down his throat, and other liberties taken with him, which, but for the application of the twitch, he would actively resent. In the present instance, while the unfortunate Tartuffe was still chewing the oats by which his confidence had been betrayed, the twitch was fixed on his nose, tightened, and the nauseating ball which was to impair his strength and fleetness, and secure the victory to the Dodona Colt, and fortune to Lord Bellefield, was already in his mouth, ere he was aware that any incivility was intended him. To give a horse a ball, however, it is not only necessary to put it into its mouth, but to thrust it back as far as, if possible, the entrance of the gullet, and this operation, even when performed in the most skilful manner, is by no means easy to the operator, or agreeable to the patient. In this last particular, the victimized Tartuffe appeared to be entirely of our opinion; the blood of his noble ancestors stirred within him, and, tossing up his head indignantly, he became practically aware of the full virtues of the twitch; the pain, however, only served to increase his rage, and he attempted to rear; but his struggles were vain; his tormentor still clung to him, the ball was thrust further back in the mouth, and in another moment the desired object would have been attained, when suddenly the loop of the twitch, unable to bear the strain upon it, snapped. The first use the race-horse made of his freedom was to shake his head violently, and at the same time opening his mouth, the stupifying ball dropped from it.

We must now return to our friend, Yorkshire Joe, who, suspecting no evil, was engaged in interesting colloquy with the perfidious Mary; this seductive young lady having contrived, with a degree of ingenuity worthy a better cause, to prolong the interview by the following expedients. First, she assailed her admirer with coquettish reproaches for his unkindness and want of gallantry in refusing to speak to her; then she entered into a long account of how, and when, and where she had discovered the pretended design against Tartuffe, which she affirmed was to be put into execution two hours from that time.

"Eh! What! tie my hands behoind me, shove a gag into my mouth, and then and there lame t'horse afore my very eyes-dost thee say, lass? I'd only like to see the man, or men either, that could do it!" exclaimed Joe, doubling his fist indignantly; "and thee heard this in the tap-room of the Chequers, dost thee say?- -What was that noise ?"

Nothing. I dropped one of my pattens, that was all," returned the girl, stooping, as if to pick it up, though she was not sorry for an excuse to hide her agitation, for her quick ear had detected the sound of a horse's hoofs trampling on straw, and she knew that her accomplice was at work. "Why, you are quite startlish to-night, Joe!" she resumed, looking up at him, with a forced smile; "did you think it was a ghost?-but its no wonder you're nervous; its hard lines for you, poor fellow, sitting up at nights like this!"

"There it is agen!" interrrupted Joe; "by it's in t'horse's box," he continued, listening attentively. "Them thieves can't be come a'ready, sure!" And heedless of Mary's assurances that it was nothing,-and her entreaties to remain only one moment longer,-the groom, now thoroughly excited, leaped down from the window, and rushed back into the stable.

With the speed of thought, the girl sprang to the door, at which she had previously tapped, and, stooping her head to the key-hole, listened eagerly. The first thing that met her ear was a volley of abuse from Joe, accompanied by heavy blows struck against wood or iron; then a noise, as of a door being burst open; next, broken curses, dull muffled strokes, ejaculations of rage or pain, the sound of trampling feet, a crushing heavy fall, and then total silence!

What had happened? She placed her eye to the key-hole, but could see nothing. She listened,-but the throbbing of her own heart was the only thing she could hear: for the first time, the fearful idea occurred to her, that by her treacherous dealing she might have occasioned her lover's death; and, regardless of consequences, she was about to start up and summon assistance, when a man's hand was laid on her shoulder, and a gruff voice exclaimed :—

"So this is the way my grooms are tampered with! I was sure I heard talking going on ;-hold up your head, you jade, and let us see what you're like; nay, it's no use to struggle,-I've got you fast enough, and see who it is I will."

So saying, Mr. Slangsby the trainer drew the girl towards him, and forcibly raising her head, threw the light of a bull's-eye lantern full on her features. "Ha! little Mary Williams," he continued, "and what brings you here, at this time of night, you artful hussey ?"

"Oh! Mr. Slangsby, pray open the door, sir; I-I'm afraid they've been and murdered poor Joe," was the reply, and overcome by fear and remorse, the girl burst into tears-real ones, this time.

"They, and who are they, pray? There's some rascality going on here, I expect; it's lucky I got up."

"T'horse is all right, meister, but I wor only jest in time though!" was his opening speech.

"In time for what?" inquired Slangsby, eagerly. "In time to stop yon villian from pizonin the blessed hanimal," returned Joe, pointing to something which at first sight appeared to be a large bundle, but which proved on examination to be a human being most ingeniously tied hand and foot with hay bands. "Who the deuce are you, fellow ?" asked the trainer, addressing the individual thus uncomfortably situated. "It ain't o' no use talking to he, for a can't answer with a wisp o' straw stuffed atween his jaws," observed Joe sententiously.

'Take it out, then, and untie his legs so that he can stand up and answer my questions."

"Better shut the dour fust then, meister, for he's a proper slippery customer, I can tell you," returned the groom; "he promised to gag me and tie my hands behind me, I do hear said, but he's found two can play at that trick,-get up ye warmint," he continued, applying a by no means gentle kick to the ribs of his prostrate captive," and show your ugly mug."

The person thus uncomplimentarily apostrophized rose slowly, and stood sullenly awaiting the trainer's scrutiny. The latter holding the lantern, so that its light fell upon the stranger's features, recognised him immediately.

"Mr. Beverley," he said, in a tone more of contemptuous pity than of anger, " is it you, sir? I knew times had been getting very bad with you, but I did not think you had come to this."

The man's lip quivered-the reproach touched him more than the most virulent abuse could have done. His had been we fear no very unusual fate, at all events he had only fallen one step lower than many who have followed the same career as he had done:-well-born, rich, and with above average abilities, a taste for gambling and low company had caused him to sink lower and lower in the scale of society, till the depth of misery and degradation to which he had been reduced, and the extent of the bribe offered by Turnbull, had overcome his last feeling of honour or honesty, and he had consented to become the agent of another's villainy. Slangsby eyed him sternly for a moment, and then said,

"You know what you have laid yourself open to, I suppose ?" The other nodded in sign of assent.

"Your sweetheart has deceived you, Joe," added Slangsby; "give her a good lecturing, and then lock her up for the night in the saddle room; she must not be at liberty till the race is over, upon any account."

Honest Joe scratched his head in deep perplexitythen a light dawned upon him, and he saw how Mary had beguiled him. Seizing her roughly by the wrist, he dragged her off, exclaiming "Come along, thee cheating jade, couldst thee foind nothing better to do than to go and deceive a poor lad that loved thee, and try to get him into trouble? If thee was but a man, I'd wollup thee till thou couldst not stand, and as it be, a little starving will do thee good, so cum along.”

At the same moment, Slangsby and his companion quitted the stable, and adjourning to the trainer's private apartments, held there a long and solemn conference; the result may be gathered from the following speeches

"And you feel sure Lord Bellefield is aware of the whole thing?" questioned Slangsby.

"I've not a doubt of it," was the reply. "Turnbull was too ready with the blunt to be acting on his own account, he has not got the money to do it. I am to have 2007. clear for this job, and my expenses paid to any part of the continent I may select." "And we may trust you?"

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Why, of course you may, man; by doing as you propose I escape transportation, receive 2001. to start afresh with, and get sent over to Paris out of harm's way free of expense."

"And your conscience?" inquired Slangsby, with a sarcastic smile.

"Curse conscience," was the angry reply; "I began life with as much honourable feeling as any man, but the villainy of the world has crushed it out of me. Life is a struggle, and each one must take care of himself; while I had money I spent it liberally, and met my engagements honestly. Now I have none, I get it as I can:-I undertook to drug your horse, because I was deeply in debt, all but starving, and Bellefield's bribe offered me a chance. I failed through an accident, and fell into your power; your proposal regains me the position, and I embrace it now as I did before. True, I deceive him: fancying your horse is poisoned he will double his bets, which are very heavy already, and be ruined, as better men have been before him, but this only serves him right for his rascality, and puts 2007. into my pocket. I have to thank you for your civility, Mr. Slangsby, and to wish you good morning." He turned to go, then, pausing, said,

---

"You have used me well in this affair, and to show you I am not all bad, I will give you a hint. Do not rely too much on the result of that trial; Bellefield's